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| Kashmir unrest scares tourists | | 50% bookings cancelled | | Javaid Naikoo
srinagar, Mar 16: With the Kashmir valley reeling under the wave of Strikes and curfews, tourism industry is up for huge loss with fifty percent of the tourists having cancelled their bookings.
According to the details received from many tour operators and Hotel owners of Kashmir, the ongoing spring season of Kashmir is going in losses as tourists are canceling their bookings.
A leading travel agent of Kashmir Travekash Travel Solutions told ETP that until now he has cancelled 50% bookings of tourists who were supposed to visit Valley in coming days because of the ongoing unrest in Kashmir.
Another Udhampur based travel agent Jai Mata Travels, said that he is receiving phone calls from his customers to cancel all the bookings up to May. He has suffered a loss of Rs 1.50 lakh since strikes started in Valley.
Owner of a travel company Rajiv Verma said that just before talking with ETP he received a call to cancel two bookings of customers one from Ahmedabad, a couple coming for their Honey-moon and another group of seven people who were supposed to come from Mumbai because of the sort of threat calls which are swinging across the country after the season of strikes and curfews started in Kashmir.
He said that he hardly managed to motivate another group of tourists to visit many areas nearer to Jammu like Patnitop instead of Kashmir in coming days.
"We have cancelled 40% bookings so far and incase the ongoing strike season in Kashmir is stretched longer it can prove a year of depression for my company," added Rajiv Verma.
The owner of Hotel New Mamta in Srinagar has a similar story to tell. According to him the strikes have affected the tourist influx greatly. "All bookings of the months of March and April have been cancelled. So far 40% bookings have been cancelled", he said.
According to the president of Kashmir Hotels and Restaurants Association, Faiz Bakhshi, the tourism sector of Kashmir which adds Rs 8,000 crores to the State economy annually and employs more than 3, 50,000 people directly looks in shambles this year. He said tourists prefer to move other places instead of Kashmir.
Bakhshi said that it has become a wait and watch situation for tourists coming from South East Asia like China, Taiwan, Singapore to first go through the conditions prevailing in Kashmir and then book or cancel their progarammes to visit Kashmir.
He added that next week is considered a deciding factor for the season. "If Hartals stretched to coming week also it can prove a huge loss for tourism sector of Kashmir", he said.
During last few years tourism was at full bloom in Kashmir. Many filmmakers preferred to shoot their films here. People associated with the tourism sector have urged the Government to take measures to save the tourist season. |
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